Coronaphobia flips the emotional world upside down: Unhealthy variables positively predict the fading affect bias at high physical symptoms of coronavirus anxiety

Abstract

The fading affect bias (FAB) refers to the faster fading of unpleasant affect than pleasant affect. The present study investigated various healthy and unhealthy variables as predictors of the FAB across physical symptoms of coronavirus anxiety (PSCA) as well as across events involving and not involving COVID‐19. The data were collected in the heart of the pandemic from April 18, 2020 to January 23, 2021. As expected, social distancing, grit, positive positive and negative affect schedule (PANAS), and rehearsals positively predicted the FAB, whereas negative PANAS, depression, generalized anxiety, and stress negatively predicted the FAB. These results supported the mobilization‐minimization hypothesis, self‐enhancement theories, and the broaden and build theory. Interestingly, PSCA moderated the relations of several variables, such that grit, hypochondria, neuroticism, average daily hours thinking and talking about COVID‐19, negative PANAS, and anxiety predicted the FAB in the expected ways at low PSCA, but all the variables, except negative PANAS and anxiety, positively predicted the FAB at high PSCA. The negative relations between FAB and both negative PANAS and anxiety diminished from low to medium PSCA, and those negative relations remained small at high PSCA. Rehearsal ratings did not mediate the 3‐way interactions. These results emphasize the dramatic effect on emotion regulation, as measured by the FAB, produced by the COVID‐19 pandemic.